THIS WEEKEND
Despite competition from three new releases, Scream
3 slashed up more business than any other
film to remain the number one movie at the box office. The Neve Campbell-Courteney
Cox frightfest was followed by the much-anticipated return of Leonardo
DiCaprio in The Beach,
a surprisingly strong opening for the family film Snow
Day, and Disney's latest cartoon The
Tigger Movie. An influx of new commercially
appealing product finally shook up the charts which have seen little change
in the last few weeks.

For the second weekend
in a row, moviegoers made the hit horror sequel Scream
3 the most popular film in North America
by spending $16.3M on the Miramax release, according to final
figures. But the weekend take plunged 53% from the $34.7M debut from a
week ago giving it the heaviest decline in the top ten. After ten days,
Scream 3 has
scared up $57M. The sophomore performance was a little better than for
its predecessor Scream 2
which fell 58% in its second try scoring $55.1M in its first ten days of
release. The concluding chapter of Wes Craven's trilogy appears to have
a very good chance of eventually reaching the $100M mark domestically,
even if it involves a rerelease similar to the ones that helped the first
two Scream pics
reach the century mark.

Leonardo DiCaprio's
much-talked-about return to the big screen resulted in a number two opening
for his adventurous thriller The Beach
which grossed $15.3M over the weekend. The Fox film played in 2,547 theaters
(27% fewer than Scream 3)
and led all movies in the top ten with a $5,998 average. Directed by Danny
Boyle (Trainspotting)
and adapted from the Alex Garland novel, The
Beach features DiCaprio as a young American
traveler in Thailand who finds a remote island that turns out to be far
from the paradise he thought it would be. Critics were generally not impressed
with the film.

After catapulting to
the status of global heartthrob with the success of Titanic,
DiCaprio has spent nearly two years out of the spotlight and has not starred
in a major release since The Man in the
Iron Mask. That MGM/UA film was released
in March 1998 and debuted with $17.2M and with an average of $5,570 per
theater. With its R-rating, The Beach
may have alienated part of DiCaprio's core fan base of young girls. However,
in this megaplex era, younger teens are known for buying tickets to PG
films only to sneak into auditoriums showing the R movies they really want
to see.

Fox distribution chief
Tom Sherak noted that The Beach
was produced for about $50M and its opening weekend audience was 57% female
and 55% under the age of 25. The film also opened simultaneously in the
United Kingdom this weekend with roughly $3.7M in 310 venues for a smashing
$11,935 average. DiCaprio, who graces the cover of Time magazine
this week, is currently in Europe to promote his new film appearing most
recently at the London premiere and at the Berlin Film Festival. Jack Dawson's
incredible appeal overseas should allow The
Beach to drift away to a solid worldwide
cume in the months ahead. The Fox title will spread across Europe in the
month ahead and invade Japan and Australia by April.

Surprising many industry
observers was Paramount's kidpic Snow Day
which took in $14.3M in its launch giving
it the biggest opening ever for a family film in the January-February period.
Storming into 2,664 sites, the tale of mischievous students enjoying an
unexpected day off from school averaged a terrific $5,380 per theater.
Snow Day was
produced in association with Nickelodeon for $13M and is on its way to
becoming another moneymaker for the Viacom siblings. With the R-rated films
Scream 3 and
The Beach
attracting the over-16 crowd, and The Tigger
Movie aiming for young children, Snow
Day found a void appealing to pre-teens
and offered a film that groups of all ages could enjoy together. Nickelodeon's
brandname is increasing in value at the box office and heavy promotion
from both the cable network and Paramount were key to the movie's successful
opening. Plus, kidpics have been in short supply recently and the need
for a new family film was great.

Prancing and singing
in fourth place was Disney's animated film The
Tigger Movie which opened with $9.4M.
Launching very wide in 2,723 theaters, the Winnie the Pooh spinoff averaged
a so-so $3,462 per venue. According to Buena Vista, Tigger
appealed mostly to young children and
their parents with half of the audience coming from the age 2-11 bracket.
95% of those polled felt the film was excellent or very good indicating
that Tigger may
hang around for a while this spring. Most critics felt that the Disney
toon would please youngsters, but would have little appeal to anyone of
double digit age.

Paramount was certainly
bold to take on the mighty Disney machine opening Snow
Day against The
Tigger Movie on the same weekend. But
with a film that appealed to a wider age group, and featured parent-friendly
stars like Chevy Chase, Paramount pulled off a superb debut for Snow
Day that the studio hopes will pay off
throughout the spring season. While Scream
3 led the national box office on Friday
and Saturday, Snow Day
actually grossed more than any other film on Sunday.

Sliding only 27%, Universal's
biopic The Hurricane punched
up another $3.6M bringing its cume to $42.4M. The Denzel Washington film
is expected to nab a few Oscar nominations on Tuesday which could keep
the film floating like a butterfly. The death row saga The
Green Mile slipped just 23% to $3.1M pushing
its tally to $124.4M.

New Line's comedy sequel
Next Friday
grossed $2.8M, down 34%, and brought its cume to date to a solid $49.4M.
Stuart Little
suffered the worst decline of its two-month run thanks to the arrival of
the two new family films. The Sony blockbuster collected $2.7M, off 43%,
climbing to $132M.

Galaxy Quest
placed ninth with $2.2M putting its total at $65.8M. After topping the
box office just two weeks ago, the Ashley Judd-Ewan McGregor thriller Eye
of the Beholder managed to take in just
$2.1M giving it a $15.1M sum in 17 days.

Three films fell out
of the top ten over the weekend. The Talented
Mr. Ripley, starring Matt Damon, Jude
Law, and Gwenyth Paltrow, grossed $1.7M in its eighth frame pushing its
cume to $77.9M. Produced for $40M by Paramount and Miramax, the Anthony
Minghella picture should conclude its run with a devious $80-85M.

Sony's $24M drama Girl,
Interrupted, starring Winona Ryder and
Angelina Jolie, has grossed $27M thus far and seems headed for a mediocre
$30-32M final tally. The Freddie Prinze Jr. teen romance Down
to You has brought in $18.4M to date and
should reach a mild $20-22M.

IMAX fans continued
to flock to Fantasia 2000
which conjured up $1.7M in its seventh weekend. Off a slim 8%, the animated
Disney hit now stands with $21.2M domestically from only 54 sites.

Toy Story 2
scooped up another $1.15M and raised its massive cume to $238.7M which
surpassed the gross of 1984's Ghostbusters
for the number eighteen spot among domestic
blockbusters. The next milestone for Disney's Golden Globe-winning
picture will be reaching the $241.9M of 1996's Twister.

Compared to projections,
The Beach
opened very close to my $16M forecast. However, Snow
Day raced far ahead of my $7M prediction.
The Tigger Movie
came in just a tad below my $10M projection.

Take this week's NEW
Reader Survey on the box office potential
of next weekend's new releases. In last week's survey, readers were asked
which of six movie sequels they most wanted to see. Of 3,167 responses,
34% picked Indiana Jones 4,
29% chose Terminator 3,
13% selected Die Hard 4,
10% picked Batman 5,
8% said Jurassic Park 3,
and 6% chose Austin Powers 3.

Be sure to read the
Weekly Rewind column which goes back to February
1991 when The Silence of the Lambs
opened at number one. For reviews of The
Beach, Scream
3, and Snow
Day visit The
Chief Report.

The top ten films over
the weekend grossed $71.9M which was down 8% from last year when Message
in a Bottle debuted on top with $16.8M,
and down 23% from 1998 when Titanic romanced
another $28.2M over Valentine's Day weekend to spend its ninth frame at
number one.

Be sure to check back
on Thursday for a complete summary, including projections, for the
crowded Presidents' Day weekend when four new pictures charge into theaters
- Hanging Up,
The Whole Nine Yards,
Pitch Black,
and Boiler Room.

This column is updated three times each week
: Thursday (upcoming weekend's summary),
Sunday (post-weekend analysis with
estimates), and Monday night (actuals).
Source : EDI, Exhibitor Relations. Opinions expressed in this column are
those solely of the author.